Julia prize cryptic crossword

I’m sure there are some in this community who enjoy cryptic crosswords, so I made one with a Julia theme.

Solve online: Julia cryptic crossword | Crosshare crossword puzzle
PDF: https://crosshare.org/api/pdf/EmPzDZr42jkPpI5BpalK

Do give it a try! If you are familiar with cryptic crosswords you will hopefully find it fun; if you are new to them, descriptions are available online. In short, all clues start or end with a definition of the answer, with the rest of the clue providing the answer via wordplay. All answers are related in some way to Julia.

I will be giving prizes to a few correct answers submitted by Sunday 6th April, selected using Random. Send a screenshot or PDF of the completed puzzle to me, either as a direct message on Discourse or via email. The quantity and type of prize depends on the number of entrants, but I may stretch to custom mugs.

No answer spoilers in the discussion please! I am happy to hear feedback though, this is my first time as a setter.

8 Likes

I was recently introduced to cryptic crosswords through a podcast, and the enthusiasm the speaker had for them had me wanting to try one out too. This is a great post to come across - I’m probably going to be abysmal at actually solving it, but it’s going to be fun anyway, so thanks for making and sharing this!

1 Like

Ok, the few I’ve solved have already made me chuckle, so I was right about the fun part :slight_smile:

A question: how do the “see 20D” type clues exactly work? Neither the wikipedia article nor the site’s own FAQ seems to cover this. 20D has “(4/2/5/4)” as (presumably) the answer lengths next to it; 15A is 4 long, 31A is 5 long, what do the other 4 and 2 mean? That 20D’s own solution is composed of two words? Feel free to answer only what a cryptic crossword fan is already assumed to know, I’m not asking for spoilers or even clues here, only clarification on what parts of the format we’re already assumed to know.

That’s it, the answer is four words with two going in 20D, one in 31A and one in 15A.

Glad you are enjoying it!

I now realise that 13A is ambiguous and could clue two different answers that fit the grid. Only one is a Julia function though… or was, it turns out it was deprecated. Oops.

This was fun, thank you!

I didn’t get two of them. 32D I’m kicking myself about, but 13A I don’t really understand even having seen the answer.

1 Like

32D was the last one I solved too, so it seems like it’s not an uncommon blind spot :slight_smile:

What I’ve learnt from solving this is that similar to the Ballmer Peak of alcohol, there’s a similar optimal point of wakefulness to get the right mix of thinking logical brain and creativity required for this. For me that’s around 1-2AM, and once I get there, puzzles that previously seemed insurmountable start practically screaming their answers at me :smile: